The Silence Between Us
by LynnieTheTurtle
Summary: Karin recalls all the past memories that lead her to the man beside her... Sorry not so good at summaries, Not any "bad" content but T just in case, mostly violence and language...
1. We Spend Some Time Together

**This is my first fanfic so please please please be nice and not flame me ;)**

**The I'm pretty sure that I'm going to add a few more chapters, but it I'm writing this on a whim cause I haven't seen many stories on these two and thought I could try one! Please review with some constructive comments so I can get better! And I apologize if there are any spelling, grammatical errors or OCCness. I'm totally open to any thoughts or comments or suggestions but cause i might not get very far without some help now and then...  
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**The title was inspired by a quote I came upon by a Mr. David Tyson Gentry, "True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable"**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, *sigh* no matter how much I'd like to...  
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I saw him at our usual spot and knew without a doubt he already sensed I was there. As if to answer my thoughts he turned his head in my direction, gave a half smile and patted the ground next to him to invite me to join. I sighed, it seemed like he was still trying to play the cool and distant teacher even after all these years. I took my seat and waited for him to start today's lesson.

After maybe five or ten minutes it became apparent that he wasn't going to say anything and so I relaxed further stared off into the horizon. I'd mellowed with age and appreciated the calm after a long hectic week. It was especially busy because the academy students had just graduated and were getting sorted into the divisions that suited each student the most. I'd gone through dozens of profiles and fought with the other divisions over the more promising graduates. It didn't help that the lieutenant never helped but being the third seat I was at her beck and call, which of course meant that she liked to shove her paperwork on me, and the captain. Along with the captain, I was able to claim the prospects we wanted and shove the less desirables to other divisions, namely the fourth and thirteenth divisions.

I snuck a peek at the man beside me and he seemed to be as drained as me. He had to do his job as a lieutenant and take over the responsibilities of his captain that betrayed us. And it seemed that he was enjoying the peace as much too. With the new recruits we had to help them develop their skills and that was a harder than it sounds and though I'd calmed as I "grew up" I would still kick the ass of any subordinate that stepped out of place. Okay, and I still fought with Toshiro… and Renji... and just about everyone else, but I can control myself now!

After maybe thirty minutes I broke the silence, "We should do this more often" He jumped a bit, startled from his thoughts probably. I tried to hide my giggles.

"What do you mean?" He asked confused.

"The whole relaxing in silence, I can't do it that much on my own 'cause the Captain needs me to help with his mountains of paperwork, but no one interrupts our lessons... this is nice"

"That might be because I scared off anyone who encroached on our space when we began, they know better now." He laughed a bit at the memory. For a nice guy, he gets very serious and kinda snappish when someone interrupts his work, whether it's paperwork or training with a friend.

"Remember when Kira and Momo wandered down here and you yelled at them to go snuggle somewhere else?" I snickered.

He started to laugh too. "Yeah, Momo was read like a tomato and I swear that Kira looked like he wanted to die."

Satisfied that I was able to break through the distant façade that he always came with, I decided to enjoy the company of my closest friend in soul society. And I started to reminisce, going back to before we met, back before I died, back when I was just the sister of an annoying strawberry.


	2. Soccer Champs And Rose Gardens

**Okeydokey! So now we get on to the story! All the stuff in italics is Karin talking to herself. So keep in mind that this is like a flash back, Karin is looking into her past and going through the sequence of events that lead to her meeting and befriending a certain someone... Well I do hope that you guessed who he is because I may write the next chapter in his point of view or I could continue with Karin and then move on to him in the fourth chapter. Oh what to do, what to do?**

**Please review and be nice on a newbie! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, but if I did I would probably put some random stuff in just to bug people! ;)  
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I ran as fast as I could. The cold winter air tore through my lungs as I pushed myself to the limit. We were competing in the high school soccer championships and though I was the only girl on the team, I was our team's star forward, though I could play all the other positions except for keeper. I had slipped past the opposing team's defender and was making a run towards the goal, calling for my teammate to pass the damn ball. "HERE! HERE! I'M WIDE OPEN!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Finally he seemed to notice me and kicked the ball in my direction, and zoomed towards the top of the goal box right as I planted my left foot and quickly launched the ball into the top-left hand corner of the rival team's goal. I started to celebrate but then a huge defender bowled me over in the goal box taunting, "That's why little girls shouldn't play with the big boys, they might get hurt." I was infuriated, but just as I was going to kick his ass and show him that if anything, he should be the one scared, the referee came and red carded the bastard. And seeing as he fouled me in the box, I got to shoot a penalty kick. _That's pretty good considering were tied 1-1 and there's only two minutes left in the game, haha, it's like a moment out of a cheesy soccer movie_.

I set the ball down on the PK mark and step back three steps, the ref blew the whistle and I took a quick look at the keeper, seeing him favor his right side(my left) I feinted to the left and shot right. It soared past him struck the back of the net. The rest of the game our team defended and played we keep away from the other team. When the final whistle blew my team hoisted me into the air and chanted my name, "KUROSAKI! KUROSAKI! KUROSAKI! "

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After getting our trophy and celebrating like we won the world cup, Dad drove us back home. Once we were inside Dad rushed to his poster of mom and cried something about how their children were "on their way to succeeding in all endeavors worthwhile" and "how our Karin is growing up into a talented young beauty." That was when I delivered a swift kick to his empty head and for a second I swear it sounded like it was hollow. As we settled down for the dinner Yuzu had prepared, Ichi-nii and I were still discussing all the highlights of the game. All in all it was a fun evening but all good things come to an end so after dinner we all got ready for bed.

I took a long shower to clean all the sweat and dirt that had accumulated on my skin and bandaged up my scrapped knee, my hair was now grown out past my shoulders and hung near my waist so now I was forced to comb out all the tangles while they were easy to get out when my hair was wet. _Maybe I should cut it again, that would make things a hell of a lot easier. _Finally I lay down in my bed replayed the game in my head. I heard everyone cheering my name and recalled the look of pride on Ichi-nii's face. Not like I would tell it to his face but I was so happy that he made time to leave soul society and watch one of the biggest games of my life.

After what seemed like forever I decided that I was still too hyped up to stay I bed. _Well, might as well work off the energy_. I promptly changed into warmer clothes and climbed out of my room and down the tree that grew very close to the window. Of course I was sixteen and Dad let me roam whenever I felt, so leaving through the front door wasn't a problem, I just didn't want to wake anyone up and our house has some pretty damn squeaky floorboards.

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I walked through the park not too far from our house and up a hill to a place where a good friend and I had once hung out. I sat on the railing and swung my feet back and forth, letting my mind wander and get some much deserved peace from my crazy family. _A lot has changed since I last saw you, huh Toshiro?_ Yuzu and I had started high school and were now our second year in, while Yuzu had joined a cooking club and handicrafts club, I became the captain of the soccer team. Yuzu and I were at the top of our class and in the class ranking I was usually first while she was a close second but sometimes we switched.

Ichi-nii had explained about shinigami and what I couldn't get out of him I got from Urahara, Yoruichi, and Tessai. Apparently Ichi-nii was now the fifth division's captain, like Toshiro he tried to explain it like he was talking to a child annoyed me to no end but Rukia had kept me from throwing a punch at his face. But by far the weirdest thing that had happened over the last few years was the dreams. I started to have dreams of a woman calling out my name, and then waking up in a cold sweat.

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_~Dream Sequence~_

_I walked down a grey stone path and into a large garden with a giant pond in the middle, the moon clearly visible on its reflective surface. Throughout the garden the only flowers were roses but they were in all shades even unnatural blues and purples and I even caught a glimpse of a thorny black rose growing isolated towards the back of the garden. The ponds surface was riddled with rose petals drifting freely along the invisible current. I started to explore the deeper part of the garden and found single bench in just behind the sheer drop of a cliff. And crept to the ledge and gazed at what lie below it. From the base of the cliff to the horizon was all black, but I heard the sound of waves crashing and got a glimpse of white, sea foam. "Be careful or you might fall," a gentle voice drifted from behind me. I bolted up right and would have fallen if the women hadn't caught me._

"_Thank You," I whispered, I didn't want to disturb the peace of the garden._

"_So you've finally decided to visit me, have you?" She replied amused in her soft voice. _

"_I-I'm sorry I-I didn't mean to intrude, I-I'll be g-going," I tried to slide past her_

_She grabbed my arm and said in the same amused tone, "How can you intrude? This is your soul or inner world as others call it" She mused, "You are welcome here at any time."_

"_My soul? Then who are you? What are you doing here?" I knew I was being rude to someone who just saved my life but I was too confused and wanted answers._

"_Well, I am a manifestation of your soul, another part of it that's created a new personality"_

"_How is that possible? I am me, and you're saying that you're me too?" This was way over my head. _

_The woman was laughing now and I decided to take a good look at her. She had fair white skin that looked like silk and long white hair that hung down her back and brushed the tops of her thighs. She wore a black kimono with long sleeves that engulfed her hands and trailed on the ground. It seemed to be all black and had white and silver prints of roses on the fabric. The woman seemed to be all black and white and gray. Even her eyes were shining silver. Not even the rose she wore behind her ear broke the color scheme, it was black as the starless sky.  
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"_Are you going to continue staring at me or are we going to talk?" _

_I chuckled embarrassed and tried to make sense of everything, "What is your name?" _

_She gave me a half smile and said, "My name is-"_

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_**Hehe, I threw in a cliffhanger! But I bet you already know whats going to happen don't you? ;;**

**Let me know what you think by reviewing ^-^  
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	3. Revelation Over Pancakes

**So my family and I are gonna be moving so I won't get to update frequently .**

**Sorry for the short chapters! I promise that I'll try to make the next ones longer! I'm starting to get onward with the story but for some reason a my little writing muse is no where to be found, so now I have a head full of words that refuse to be type in a nice orderly fashion. **

**Let me know what you think about it! So review!**

**Disclaimer: I din't own Bleach :'(**

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_~RECAP~_

_She gave me a half smile and said, "My name is-"_

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"Karin get up breakfast is ready!"

I yawned as I stretched out my cramped muscles. Stretching a little too far, I rolled off and face planted on to the floor. _Thank God no one saw that. _I thought as I shuffled my way downstairs to eat whatever Yuzu put in front of me.

"How long are you staying Ichi?" Yuzu asked reluctantly only after exhausting all other "safe" breakfast topics.

He sighed and glanced out the window, "I have to leave tomorrow, Hinamori sent me a message that she was having a crisis and needed me back ASAP"

"So soon?" Yuzu complained, "But you just got here. You never spend time with us anymore." Seriously, Yuzu sounded like a mother complaining about her son not calling. Speaking of parents, Dad was already complaining to Mom's poster about how ungrateful his son was, that we ignored as we sat in a comfortable silence.

"Hey, Karin is something bugging you?"

"It's nothing Yuzu" I tried to brush off her concern. I still felt somewhat unsettled by my dream last night.

"We're not buying it Karin" I guess I looked really off if even Ichigo could tell something was wrong.

"It's nothing, I just had a weird dream," I caught a glimpse of Yuzu's concerned expression and quickly added, "nothing to worry about though, it wasn't a nightmare or anything, just a really weird dream…"

Yuzu was obviously not going to stop making that face unless I elaborated, so I told her about the dream. For some reason Ichi-nii got really interested, and between his and Yuzu's prompting and questioning, they got every detail of the dream out of me.

"And you never heard her name?" Ichigo asked.

"Nope, never"

"I think I know what's going on, but let's go to Urahara's and tell them about this."

Ichi-nii seemed anxious, and when he's anxious he has no patience at all, so he had me climb on his back so we could shunpo to the candy store.

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"Ichigo, it's so nice for you to visit!~" Urahara sang, "Would you like some tea?~"

"Shut up, I need you to listen to something serious" and he had me explain my dream in detail again.

"You see why I came here right?" Ichi-nii questioned Urahara. The man's voice turned serious as he answered.

"I see why, and yes that seems to be what's going on." I looked back and forth between the two confused.

"Well are you going to tell her or should I?"

"You'll explain it better, I have no idea how this can be happening"

Urahara gathered his thoughts and turned to me, "Well Karin, It seems like your zanpakuto is surfacing, and communicating with you."

"Isn't that a shinigami sword's spirit?"

"Essentially, yes. What makes this odd though is that you're not a shinigami yet; my theory is that the reiryoku that Ichigo unconsciously leaks has affected your already high reiatsu and exposed you to a climate that is similar to that of soul society. So in theory you can probably start training as a shinigami even though you haven't died yet, and you won't have to go through the same process as your brother."

"I'm going to have to notify soul society aren't I?" Ichigo groaned "I never wanted you or Yuzu to get involved in this"

"But if we keep her a secret it might pose issues when she dies and has the abilities of a shinigami, I don't think she's the type to live a life in Rukungai, and if she goes to the academy then her abilities will be noticed immediately"

"Then don't train her."

"If we don't she'll attract hollows and won't be able to defend herself."

"Do I get a say in what I'm going to do with my life?"

Both of those idiots seemed to have forgotten I was in the room.

I sighed and began, "From what you guys have said, I see only one option that won't reflect poorly on any of us, and that is for you Ichi-nii to go to soul society and tell them about my situation and while we wait for them to decide what to do with me, you Urahara are going to train me, with the rest of your company of course"

They obviously saw that it was the best decision.

Ichi-nii sighed, "Urahara, can you prepare the Senkai as soon as possible?"

"Well, I'm ready as soon as you're ready to go." Urahara replied, "Karin, come by tomorrow morning around 7 and we'll start your training."

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It wasn't like I could get some sleep after everything that had happened today. So naturally I went out the window and slipped out to me and Toshiro's spot. I sat there and gazed at the stars as I let my mind wander off into space.

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**Please let me know what you think! **

**Review ^-^**


	4. Incidental

Something was wrong. I took a quick inventory of my senses. My mouth was dry; my body was cold and stiff; a felt gravel under my fingertips. It seemed I had fallen asleep outside again. But that didn't seem to be it. It was the crushing pressure that seemed to be pressing me in on myself. I'd only felt like this a handful of times before. Unfortunately, a gut-retching metallic roar confirmed my suspicions. I pushed myself up as quickly as possible, ignoring the prickling sensation in my legs and looked for the nearest cover. The greatest thing about our spot was the unobstructed view of the city and sky, this of course meant that I had absolutely nothing to use as a makeshift shelter or weapon. I just had to keep myself alive until a Shinigami came and took care of it. I just needed to try and survive.

The hollow was massive, easily three stories high with menacing white claws that matched its bone white mask to perfection. I knew that instant that I was bound to die. There was no way I could fend off such a powerful enemy with nothing to defend myself. The hollow wound back its arm to strike me with those sickle claws when I felt a tug at the back of my mind. _'I am yours to use rosebud.'_ The voice of the rose woman whispered, _'Show that the most beautiful of flowers have the sharpest of thorns.'_

_'What the HELL is that supposed to mean?' _I called out to her in my mind as I squeezed my eyes shut and raised my arms in a desperate attempt to save my face from mass mutilation. I hoped my family would at least recognize my body when they finally found it out here. But the strike didn't fall. Instead of the sound of tearing flesh I was expecting, I heard a clear and distinct ring and felt a vibration coming from an object in my right hand. It was a katana. Before I could register what was going on, another strike came from the hollow. Followed by another. And another. I had never fought with a sword before and clumsily deflected a few of the blows. But more than a few ripped the flesh of my arms, torso, and thighs.

Before long I was getting dizzy from blood loss, and each heft of my sword was taxing my shredded limbs more and more. At last I felt my knees give way and saw the blunt edged teeth of the hollow looming over me. _'This in going to hurt like hell.'_ I couldn't help giggling at the irony of my own words, why couldn't I? I was about to die anyway.

Just as I felt the last of my life drain from my body, I saw a dark figure slash the hollow's mask in two. But help had come too late. At last the pain stopped and the fatigue left me. I hovered over my body with a broken chain hanging from my chest. The man was definitely a shinigami but not one I had encountered before. I was sure I would have remembered him, either from the scars marring his face or the tattoo on his cheek.

"You seem to be taking this well, most souls freak out when they're being attacked by a monster." He said as he approached me. "You do understand that you're dead, right?" It seemed like he wasn't one to tiptoe around feelings. Though it made him seem insensitive, it was a trait I could respect.

"Yeah, so are going to do the sword thing to send me on my way or continue to interrogate me until another hallow comes?"

"I take that back, it seems you're a bit snippy." He grunted. "What's your name?"

"And the interrogation continues, do you do this with every soul you meet or just the ones you want to annoy?"

He sighed as though the effort of putting up with me exhausted him. "It's just a procedure we have for this area, it's special land that's full of souls capable of extraordinary feats. And why am I telling you all this in the first place?" Gently brought his hand up to hold his head and his shoulders slumped in a way that made me think that I wasn't the only thing that was taxing him at that moment.

"Karin," I said, suddenly tired enough for the two of us. I wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to keep myself in check for however longer I needed. He wasn't someone I should take my emotions out on.

"What?" He seemed to pull himself out of his own brooding.

"My name. It's Karin."

"Okay Karin, I hope you have better luck in the next life than you had in this one." He came closer and I had a few moments to admire the definition in his arms and chest. Of course I was thinking totally clinically…

As he approached me the rose women whispered in my mind once more, _'Don't worry my bud you will grow your thorns in due time. But you'll need a gardener. The best blossoms are the ones that have been carefully tended and nurtured.' _She reflected as the man tapped my forehead with the bottom of his sword. My world was fading when she finished her musing, _'I suppose this one will do.'_

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I found myself back at the rose garden from my dream. The sky overhead was blanketed so thickly with storm clouds that the full moon's light could only just illuminate the cobble stones surrounding the pond. I took especially delicate steps along the path, keeping in mind the soulless black waters were on one side and the sharp thorns of the roses were on the other. I found her just as a bitter wind started to pick up. The rose woman was positioned next to the single black rose in the most secluded reach of the garden. As I approached her she lifted her face and her silver eyes bore into mine. "Rosebud," she started to say, "Don't be so put out."

"I'm not upset," I replied, "I don't have the right to be, It was my own fault, really." I said this more to myself than to the woman. "Ichi-nii need me to be more careful and I continued to do as I pleased. I knew it was dangerous but I still went out. Not only that but I was stupid enough to fall asleep in the open. And now everyone is going to worry about what happened to me- And Yuzu's going to be heart broken. Who's going to take care of Yuzu? Dad's an idiot. Ichi-nii is always gone. I'm gone too." By the end I was bawling, tears were snaking their way down my face and I had started biting down on my fist to muffle my sobs. How could I have gotten so weak?

Yuzu was the soft one, she was supposed to be the petals and I was supposed to be the thorns. But the slightest notion of being parted from her had reduced me to tears. In the end, maybe it wasn't the fact that Yuzu needed me that tore me apart, but I was really broken because I needed her. I wasn't ladylike or polite. I had never been able to make friends with girls with the exception of Rangiku and Rukia. And it wasn't even like those two counted anyway.

The truth was that I needed Yuzu to soften my masculine tendencies. I needed her beside me so that she could apologize for me or simply be there when everybody left. Everybody left us.

"I'll never leave you." The rose woman shocked me. Had she read my mind? "Of course I did," She replied to my question, "I am part of your soul, I will always know you. And I will always be with you."

It wasn't until the wind started to die down that I had noticed it was there to begin with. The clouds overhead had darkened so that not a trace of moonlight could seep through. But that did little to hamper my eyesight as sharp electric currents laced through them like veins of silver impregnate rock. I squinted hard trying to find a glimmer of her lustrous hair. I could just make out her outline huddled around the one of the roses of the garden. "You need to calm yourself Karin," I caught an undercurrent of tension and (was I wrong?) fear in her voice but to my surprise, she was still able to sound regal and in control. "This is your inner world, another part of your soul. You have a prodigious amount of power and potential. If you don't reign it in now, you might destroy us both."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I beseeched her.

"Focus on something anything, try to attain a firm grip on the emotions inside you." I tried. My rational mind chased down each of my wayward emotions; loss, confusion, anguish, anger, worry, guilt. "Then hold each one and analyze it in detail. Why do you feel that emotion? What has caused it?" And so I did. I felt loss for my family, my friends, my life. I felt anger for my stupidity, and guilt for leaving my family to a shredded corpse. I studied each emotion, the more I dissected each one, the farther I distanced myself from them.

"Very good," the rose woman said. "Now that you've gained all the knowledge you can from them, let them go." That was hard. Each time I remembered something or someone, they would all flood back in a pointed attack at my heart. The memory of my death conjured the most brutal of the emotions to assail me. "It will take time my rose bud, for now focus on something new that is not linked to your past life. Let go of the past entirely, if you cling so desperately you will surly smother us."

I focused on the only thing that wasn't connected to my former life. That shinigami. I repeated our meeting and conversation over and over again in my mind. I committed the cadence of his voice to heart. And memorized the fine details that lay just under his rough appearance. Like the lines of his cheekbones, the shape of his eyes, and the exact shade of black his hair was. And I remembered other details that would have slipped by with the passage of time; the rough fingertip calluses of a guitar player, slight scent of something chemical wafting from his skin, the way his reiatsu felt as it washed over my body. I poured over his very being with a stalker's thoroughness, trying to distill what I knew of this unknown shinigami down to its essence, down to a feeling. It would be my anchor and once I used it to fasten down my heart, I'd try to forget him too.

It felt like whole eternities had slowly dripped by, but finally the savage wind had died down to a fragrant breeze that caressed my skin. The moon was shining at its highest voltage and I couldn't suppress the urge to lift my face to it and bask in its beauty. It was then that I realized that it didn't look right. It was the correct shape and form but instead of having the blotched complexion I had always known it was pure white and smooth like a blank sheet of paper. It was blinding, especially when compared to the ink blackness it floated in.

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_**WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! So sorry for not updating in soooooooo long. Please forgive me TT-TT**_

_**Rant, Review, let me know you forgive me?**_


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